More rain on the way

STATE COLLEGE PA. — With spring snow on April 24, could the weather this year get any worse?

Yes, according to the forecasters at the Accuweather Center.

Accuweather Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity said, "The storm next week appears as though it will tap a significant amount of Gulf moisture, while a puddle of cool air settles over the Midwest."

Setups like this have the potential to unleash rounds of heavy rainfall: Some of it from thunderstorms, some by other means.

The area at greatest risk for additional flooding or continuing soggy conditions would be from Iowa and Missouri to Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. Much of this area has already received from 150 to 200 percent of their normal precipitation since Jan. 1.

This year the U.S. Department of Agriculture said less than 2 percent of farmers in the Midwest have put summer crops in the ground compared 26 percent by this time last year.

There is hope that warmer weather in the Midwest this weekend into early next week may be enough to allow some planting to take place in some well-drained areas ahead of the next storm system.

Branch County farmers report that the end of the May is the last possible time to get crops in for this year.